Dark Pasts  Bright Futures
by TH3LASTHOP3
Summary: Castle had a friend, and that friend showed him something that could only be described as rediculous and not possbile to anyone. But what happens when that friend comes to New York to get files from the mind of Castle's partner? Need at least 5 reveiws
1. Chapter 1

A Far Off Dream

Richard Castle looked out the window of his Tribeca apartment and sighed. It had been almost a week since the homicide team at the 12th had gotten a case. Not that he didn't mind there being less dead bodies in the world, but he also hadn't seen much of his favorite cherry scented detective. After the whole fiasco with the "other guy," Beckett had been avoiding him more and more.

Castle didn't know what to think, and looking at the blank computer screen in front of him, ideas weren't flowing as much as he'd like. Sighing he went into his desk drawer and pulled out a pen. But the pen wasn't a normal pen, once upon a time that pen had kept him alive, and it had been awhile since he had used it. He twirled it between his fingers and leaned back in the recliner chair looking at the descending sun over the city scape.

At that moment his cellphone went off, turning he around he checked the caller ID and to his enjoyment it was Beckett.

"Castle," he said with utmost casualness, it wasn't his first choice of words but it sufficed better then, "_why have you been avoiding me for a week."_

"We've got a murder," Beckett said with the utmost professionalism, "I'll forward you the address via text, meet me there."

"Gotcha," Castle replied before hanging up the phone, not wanting to prolong an awkward conversation, he had no doubt, that they would talk about it eventually, just not right now. Getting up from the chair, he grabbed his coat and yelled to Alexis he had a case. He got a mediocre response and shrugged flying out the door to hail a cab and get to the crime scene.

(half way across the city)

Dom Cob looked to the city scape and found himself thinking back to his childhood, to all the things he used to do before his father introduced him to the world of the mind. The friends he used to have and the people he used to be close too. He remembered one kid in particular, his best friend all the way through grade school and high school, a kid named Richard Rodgers.

Him and Rick met in on the playground and they played a lot of games with their imagination. Superheroes and such, they both always dreamed of saving the world together, but that was just a childhood fantasy. Until Dom's junior year of high school when his father introduced him to the world he now lived in. One where everything was possible, in the mind. After his father introduced him to it, he tried to introduce Rick to that world, because Rick was his best friend, it seemed unreasonable to not let his best friend indulge in the same awesomeness Dom felt when he entered the mind. Rick even made a totem in the form of a weighted pen. But something went seriously wrong the last time Rick made a dive into a mind, he almost got lost in Limbo. Dom knew it was his fault, so the next day he moved away and Rick was left by his lonesome.

But the _reason_ Dom was in New York, under and assumed alias was because he had an extraction assignment. An NYPD detective named Kate Beckett had important information regarding a player in Dom's game, a man named Dick Coonan. When Dom had inquired about Coonan it was said that Kate Beckett had shot him dead inside the precinct. Whatever Coonan had been working on it would be in a case file. Rather then steal the case file, giving police evidence for a theft charge, Dom was going to extract the information and skip town until he could figure out his next move.

So to draw out Detective Beckett, Dom did the most reasonable thing, he stole a dead body from the city morgue and placed it in a spot that would constitute a call to the NYPD, and hopefully grace the presence of Kate Beckett. So, Dom waited for the detective and continued to reflect on the past.

( 1 Hour later)

Kate opened the door to the crime scene, and saw the body. It looked like a basic pop and drop, dead body on the floor with one GSW. She around the small apartment and saw none of the regular crime scene people, not even Castle which was a complete surprise all things considered. She'd seen how he had acted the other day when she had brought Josh to the precinct and she really did feel bad. But Castle had made his decision, and so had she, now they were friends, just friends working cases. _Get over yourself Katie, _she thought to herself _you know it's more complicated then that, you just don't want to admit it._ Kate shook her head, her and Castle would talk about it later, but now, they had a murder to solve. That was the last thought she had before the scent of Chloroform hit her nose, and she passed out.

Dom carried the limp detective and set her on the couch. He looked around the room and almost laughed at the amount of work it had taken to make the fake crime scene, he and Arthur had taken almost all day and worked on this, and even now, it looked amazingly real, one of Cob's best works. From the overturned tables to the shattered vases, everything was perfect in a twisted sort of way.

Dom took a deep breath and then picked the detective up, draping her over his shoulders, moving her out of the room. That's when he heard a door open and turned facing the door the handgun that was stashed in his waistband aimed at the door, ready to fire if someone got hostile.

Castle opened the door expecting to find CSU and his team but instead he saw a man with a gun. He froze up and put his hands up, until he noticed the woman on the man's shoulder. It was Kate! Instantly Castle became a different man, putting his arms down and jumping at the man.

Castle body checked the man and grabbed his arm pointing the gun away from both of them. The man put his arm around Castle's throat and began to squeeze. Suddenly the hyper active mind of Richard Castle, flashed back 15 years when he had been in a fight exactly like this. His best friend had told him the one way to get out of a choke hold. It was to pump the elbow into the solar plexus incapacitating the attacker. Castle was preparing to drive the elbow when the man stopped the attack. The attacker said something to Castle something that would ring in his ears. "Don't try that, I mastered that move." Castle grunted and then turned to look at the man, when his face came into clear view Castle's eyes widened. "Dom?" The attacker stopped and looked upon the author with a shocked look of his own. "Rick? What the hell are you doing here?"


	2. Chapter 2

Authors Note: Im so sorry it took so long to update this. Unfortunatley the guise of writing an actual book had to take precident over the fanfiction, but now that the initial writing is over here's the next chapter!

Castle ran his hand through his hair as his old friend turned Kate's kidnapper sat across the room in a chair.

"What's it been Dom? Fifteen years? More?" Castle asked with increased urgency. Dom smiled, "at least that Rick." Rick pointed to Kate, "do you mind explaining that then?" Dom shrugged, it was a job Rick, I'm a freelancer you can't just play right and wrong here."

Castle stood up, exasperated. "she's an NYPD detective for god's sake!" Dom stood up matching Rick's tone. "I had no choice! My life's different now Rick, I have kids, my wife.." Dom stopped him self there.

Castle put his hand on his shoulder, "I have a kid, and two ex wives. It looks like we have a lot to talk about." Dom nodded, and then looked over to Kate, "how are we going to deal with her?" Castle took a pen out of his pocket, but it was not a regular pen, it was his Totem, one he had made with Dom all those years ago.

"She's already asleep, hook me up ill build it and explain it to her, slowly." Dom looked to him with darkened eyes, "you sure Rick? You remember the last time you went in?" Castle nodded, "It won't happen again, you have my word."

Dom sighed, "fine, but you have twenty minutes, then I'm pulling you out." Castle nodded and layed back on the floor, his resting against the seat of the couch, in front of Kate. Within a minute or so, he was hooked up within a few minutes and then as soon as he was prodded with the needles, he was asleep and within a minute or so, he touched Kate's mind.

Kate awoke in the apartment where she had been kidnapped, there was no one in the room though, and she wasn't bound gagged or any of the usual procautions kidnappers took. She got up and went to exit, when the door opened. She was expecting a strange looking man, or a mafia thug or something, but instead she saw Castle. "Castle?" She said not really believing he was there. He strode up to her quickly and gave her a hug, inhaling the scent of cherries that always seemed to linger over her.

"I'm glad your alright," he said squeezing her without hurting her. She looked at him strangely, "what do you mean? What's going on?" After stating that question, Castle let go of her and grabber her hand pulling her up off the couch. "Come on, I've got something to show you." She merely nodded, not sure how she felt about the contact they were making.

As they exited the apartment building Kate saw nothing but plain old new york, nothing more nothing less. So she continued to walk with him, then she noticed the people, they were staring at him like he didn't belong like he just should fall off the face of the earth. "Castle," she whispered, "why are they staring?" Castle hushed her with a shhh and then pulled her into the nearest alley, devoid of people. "We're not in New York," he simply said. She looked at him like he was crazy, "what do you mean we're not in New York? Of course we are," she said pointing to the Empire State Building clearly visible from where they were. Castle grinned, "if we were in New York how could I do this?" With a wave of his hand, the brick wall blocking them from access any farther simply collapsed in on itself making a path in between the two walls leading out an adjacent street.

"Castle," she asked, "what's going on?" He was about to answer when Kate saw the most unbelieveable thing in front of her, striding up to them wearing a red dress, with heels and makeup giving her eyes a charcoal – like appearence, she saw herself. Kate Beckett was standing in front of herself and the other her looked angry.

"Rick!" The other one barked, "what are you doing with her!" Castle looked at Kate and then at the other one. "Who are you?" he asked, both confused and terrified at the same time. The other Beckett smiled, "come now darling who do you think I am?" She strode up to him, with a seductive hip swing to match Beyonce. Castle gulped. "I'm her, well the real her." Castle looked at Kate with a questioning glance she merely shrugged.

"You see Ricky," she said letting his name roll off of her tongue. "This is your world, you built it, but it's Katie's consciousness that lives in it. I'm merely conveying how she feels around you." Castle looked to her with a glance that was halfway between, wow your hot, and why didn't you tell me this sooner. The other Kate continued, "deep down, Kate knows things with Josh won't last, because she always will be near you. Always around you, always with you."

Castle's faced showed something between releife and nervousness. The other Kate's eyes narrowed, "but you broke her heart once. When you ran off to the hamptons with that bitch ex – wife of yours for the summer." Castle's face saddened and he turned to her, "I didn't mean to hurt you. I thought you were with Tom, and I.. I couldn't stay there knowing that I'd have to watch you be with him all summer. I ran, and I'm sorry."

Kate felt herself tear up, and squeezed his hand tighter, letting him know that it was alright.

The other Beckett got even angrier pulling their hands apart. "Oh no no no, come on Katie, you think you can hold all of those feelings back and then not expect me to do something about it?" With that she brought her lips up to Castle's and kissed him. Kate felt her knees go weak, she had to watch this... bitch make out with Castle.

But Castle was stronger then she thought, he pushed the other Kate away, "I don't want just the lust and the love, I want all of it." Both the other Beckett and Kate herself gave him the same questioning look.

Castle explained, but to the real Becektt. "I love that you feel the same, I do, but just those feelings don't make you who you are. I want Beckett when she's annoyed at some childish joke I made, Beckett when she relates to a victim's situation and begins to tear up over a murder commited in her own life. I want Beckett when she focuses on the murder at hand and nothing but it. I want all of Kate, not just this."

Kate felt her self tear up, and at that moment she wanted nothing more but to hug him and give him a kiss. But before she could move, a sliver of metal protruded from his ribcage. His eyes went wide, and he died, just like that. Kate looked on his body with shock and then looked to teh assilant. The other her, the dressed up one, held the knife slick with Castle's blood, she was smiling. Kate's heart jumped in her chest and then at once she felt that knife go through her ribs as well. As she felt herself slowly letting go, she crawled her way over to Castle stroking his hair and leaning into his still corpse as she died.

Then nothing but black.

As she woke up, she found she was still on the couch, and in the room a man wearing a suit with slicked back hair and goatee along stood over her. He gestured down and as she followed his head, she saw Castle, leaning into the seat of the couch coming too as she was. They made eye contact and as she did, she saw nothing but love in his eyes and in that moment she cared not that a complete stranger was watching, she had seen him die once, and she wasn't taking that chance again. So, she did what she felt was right, and kissed him.

He returned the kiss and deepened it. As they continued exploring each others mouths with their tongues, he murrmered against her mouth. "I love you." She stopped the kiss and looked into his eyes. "I love you too." Then she kissed him again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors note** Sorry guys... For anybody who want to be an author and real one... umm be prepared to be run ragged by your publisher. So without further delay another chapter.. this stuffs getting good :D

After regaining consciousness and shaking off the after effects of the dive Kate eyed the man that had knocked her out in the first place. But after giving him the once over Castle decided to make introductions. "Kate this is Dom Cobb, he's a person with uhh special skills that he uses to freelance." Kate's curiousity was piqued at that moment. "Does this have something to do with the dream you were in and such?" Castle nodded. Then he explained. "We only use 10 percent of our brains but when we dream that power is limitless. Everything in the mind is accessible from your dream; memories, infomation everything you could think of. So.. when someone needs information they hire someone called an extractor, which is what Dom does he extracts information from people's minds to deliver it to someone else."

Kate took this all in stride. If she hadn't experience it first hand she wouldn't have believed it. "So what were you trying to extract from my mind?" Dom looked at her for a minute and then spoke, "I needed information about the murder of Dick Coonan." Kate's heart stopped in her chest. "Who asked you to gather that information?" Dom looked to Castle, "she serious? Detective with all due respect I have the right to privacy." Kate looked at him and then said, "you also have the right to remain silent, anything you say.." She began to take the cuffs from her belt but Castle stopped her. "Whoa whoa whoa, lets not jump to conclusions here Kate." He turned to Dom, "look, Coonan murdered her mother, how are you gonna turn down the chance to catch the guys who had her murdered." Dom sighed and then looked up, "it was a man named James Violanto." Kate took this info in stride and before she could ask who it was, Castle handed her his Iphone.

"James Violanto, head of the New York Federal Bureau of Investigations. Spotless record and three commendation awards for murders solved when part of NYPD. His last case before joining the Bureau.. the murder of Johanna Beckett." This info hit Kate like a ton of bricks and she could only stare at Castle. "This man... murdered my mom?" Castle nodded somberly embracing her.

He looked to Dom, "Will you help us get the information we need?" Dom shrugged, "he's going to be a hard target to get to, but even if we do get to him, any info I get won't be addmissible in court. Legally extraction has no jurisdiction." Rick looked down for a minute as if contemplating then looked back up, "I have another idea." Dom looked to him questioningly, "what do you mean?" Rick looked to him with seriousness in his eyes, "Inception." With the word spoken a part of Dom's heart tore up thinking back towatrds the night his wife died. "How would that work?" Rick shrugged, "we get him to feel completely guilty over what he's done, then he announces it publicly and we get to breath a sigh of relief."

Dom thought about the plan for a minute and then nodded, "I'll call the rest of my team." Rick nodded and then looked down to Kate, "we're gonna get this guy, I promise." Kate looked up to him, lightly stroking his cheek, "I hope so." With that she kissed him, lightly but with love.' Rick looked to the setting sun on the horizon. They had some planning to do, things were about to get hectic, but, looking back down at Kate and smiling, he was confiedent they could get through it, together.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and then led her out, "come on, let's go to Remy's I'm starving." She laughed, and agreed following him out, and couldn't help but think that if this was how her life was going to be, then she didn't mind it at all.

**thanks for reading, now REVEIWWWW! I neeed five before I post the next chapter!**


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